-*'k« 



•AA Director Otto Steffey hat kapt farm 



account books (all shown above) en his 



farms for 23 successive years. 



counts as a gauge of his ability as a 

 farmer alongside that of his neighbors 

 in similar circumstances. Nothing, he 

 says, shows up your weaknesses and 

 successes as a farmer better than the 

 records compiled under the Farm Bu- 

 reau-Farm Management Service. 



Normally he puts about 120 acres of 

 his land in corn, 60 in oats, 25 in al- 

 falfa, 25 to 30 in soybeans and the rest 

 in pasture and legumes. He generally 

 follows a four year rotation plan — 

 corn, corn, oats, and sweet clover, or 

 corn, beans, oats, and legumes. 



Last summer he planted all his crops 

 on the contour after experimenting 

 with contour cropping for three years. 

 Both farms are under a five-year soil 

 conservation plan as worked out by the 

 soil conservation district. 



All fields have been limed and all 

 receive applications of manure at least 



once in four years. One third of Stef- 

 fey's fields have received some rock 

 phosphate. He has not yet applied any 

 mixed fertilizers. 



Steffey joined the Henderson County 

 Farm Bureau in 1919 and took part in 

 early membership drives. Always ac- 

 tive in sports, Director Steffey played 

 on the Farm Bureau baseball team for 

 several years and was on Henderson 

 county teams which twice went to the 

 state Farm Bureau finals only to lose, 

 however, to the state champions. 



Besides serving 20 years on his Coun- 

 ty Farm Bureau board, Steffey served as 

 its secretary a number of years. He 

 helped organize one of the first service 

 companies and was secretary of a three- 

 county service company composed of 

 Henderson, Warren and Mercer coun- 

 ties until they disbanded and formed 

 their own companies. He then served 

 as secretary of the Henderson county 

 service company. 



He is a charter member and organizer 

 of the Monmouth Production Credit 

 Association and has served as its presi- 

 dent the past decade. He was presi- 

 dent of the old county livestock ship- 

 ing association for 15 years and is now 

 president of its successor, the Hender- 

 son Livestock Marketing Association. 



Steffey was school trustee 15 years 

 and is secretary of the Illinois Western 

 Grain Company board. Conscientious 

 about his responsibility to the farmers 

 who elected him to represent them, 

 Steflfey has never missed a board meet- 

 ing, and has attended 166 consecutive 

 sessions. He has served two years on 

 the Illinois Farm Supply board of di- 

 rectors, and is a member of the live- 





.-:'■) 



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f^', 



Com in Henderson county and vicinity was 



good this year. Steffey samples the crop 



on his farm. 



Stock committee of the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. 



The lAA director from the l4th dis- 

 trict also has served on the Henderson 

 county fair board. He is a member of 

 the Elks Club in Monmouth, belongs 

 to the Masons and is a member of the 

 Methodist church. 



While on the lAA board, Steffey has 

 watched Farm Bureau membership 

 grow from 42,000 to 145,000. He feels 

 pretty strongly about the importance 

 of farmers sticking together. "Farm- 

 ers," he said, "must present a united 

 front. They have no other alternative 

 to meet the organized strength of other 

 groups on the same footing. Through 

 the years I have seen our organization 

 get results because we have spoken with 

 one voice in making our wishes 

 known." 



Igresslonal 

 [gricultural 

 by Otto 



SHORTS IN THE NEWS 



Farm Adviser Ray T. Nicholas 

 of Lake county is $2200 richer 

 these days after taking second 

 place in the commercial welding 

 classification of the Lincoln Arc 

 Welding Foundation $200,000 De- 

 sign for Progress award program. 

 Last year Nicholas won $2600 in 

 the same contest. Nicholas gradu- 

 ated from the University of Wis- 

 consin College of Agriculture in 

 1930 and has worked in Peoria 

 county and Schuyler county. He 

 is married and has two daughters. 



The National Federation of Bee Keep 

 ers Association will meet January 15-16 at 

 Salt Lake City. 



Elbert Elsbury, Gurnee, Lake county, 

 has been elected first president of the 

 newly organized Illinois Dairy Breeding 

 Federation. The group represents the 

 three artificial breeding associations now 

 o{)erating in Illinois and is one of the 

 first such organizations in the country 

 that is aimed to advance the dairy indus- 

 try of the state. 



John G. Waggoner, Mgr. of the 

 Coles - Moultrie Electric Cooperative 

 asks farmers to help police their power 

 lines to prevent vandals from shooting 

 at glass or porcelain insulators. 



John R. Gilkey, Macon county 

 Farm Adviser since 1933, has re- 



signed effective December 31. 

 During Gilkey's tenure, Maa>n 

 County Farm Bureau became the 

 first county organization in the 

 United States to establish a farm 

 safety program, and Farm Bureau 

 membership grew from 300 to 

 2300 families. Gilkey is a native 

 of Edgar county and graduate of 

 the University of Illinois. He was 

 a farm adviser in Indiana and Ohio 

 before going to Macon county. 



Winnebago Farm Adviser H. R. 

 Brunnemeyer has been named to the 

 Rockford Chamber of Commerce board 

 of directors. .- , - ,: . . 



The Illinois State Vegetable 

 Growers Association will hold its 

 annual meeting in East St. Louis, 

 Dec. 11-12, with the St. Clair- 

 Madison-Monroe County Vege- 

 table Growers Association as host. 



DECEMBER. 1947 



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